Lulu Jan 10, 2009

Honestly, these girls are just moronic. Why would Cisco associate itself with them? They are not at all tech savvy and are of questionable intelligence. Please, do not feed the beast that is Julia Baugher Allison / Non Society.

Johanna Fry Jan 10, 2009

Hi Lulu,

While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, Cisco and Nonsociety are teamed up to facilitate awareness for Digital Cribs series. We feel that Nonsociety’s utilization of technology in their daily routines and business makes them a suitable outlet for communicating the usage of consumer technology and the home network in refreshing ways that their followers relate to easily. We appreciate your comment and your willingness to express your view. Please respond with any constructive ideas or insights that you have regarding Digital Cribs.
              Thanks again, Johanna

Lulu Jan 13, 2009

Hi Johanna,

Thanks for your response. I think the myth around these girls is that because they use laptops, digital cameras, iphones, blackberries, film themselves doing “lipdubs” and so on, they must be utilizing technology in some new and interesting way. The truth of the matter is that they are no different than hundreds or thousands of people living in the Bay Area and elsewhere. I am not objecting to you featuring interesing people utilizing consumer technology and home networking, but these girls cheapen your brand. When they should have been shilling for Cisco and Kodak at CES, they instead went to the AVN porn convention. They are obnoxious and unprofessional and cheapen your brand. There are so many more truly tech savvy and intelligent people you could have used for your Digital Cribs series instead of these vacuous wastes of internet space. I think if you were to look online you would find many negative reviews about these fameballs. Sounds like someone didn’t do any research before signing them up for a sponsorship. Hopefully you didn’t pay them much.

josephina Jan 13, 2009

I have to agree with Lulu. A friend of mine freaked out when he checked their blog and pulled up Meghan’s nipple picture. While he is not against looking at such, he was at work, it was a work computer. I’m just saying—there are few acceptable ways to surprise one with porn. I felt their coverage was very weak, reblogging each other’s pictures and conversations did not hold my interest. What’s more, when their QOTD site went crazy with comments, they removed the pics and did not address it at all. Seemed strange to not at least say something…

I truly believe that much of the drama that revolves around their endeavors is planted [ie fake e-mails calling julia fat] it drives up page views. Who ever reblogged Julia made a compelling argument when he/she confronted JA for sending tips to the reblog site using an e-mail address she used to tip gawker. I suppose people do follow her [how else could I know what I do] and in that sense, she produces traffic, which is ironic since she is so frequently compared to a train wreck or car accident one can not look away from.

Thank you for your time.

Nonsocietyisdisreputable Jan 14, 2009

I agree. Bloggers who backdate posts to include better coverage for their sponsors after the fact and give the impression of having timely coverage of a conference that indeed was not properly covered on time and who do so without indicating their backdating defy industry convention and are not considered trusted or respected the spokespeople for reputable companies IMO. I think their connection cheapens any reputable company’s brand.

Sarah Jan 15, 2009

Cisco, your marketing team might want to do more research before associating with these bloggers again. They have been recently called out on practicing some really unethical and shady behavior on their blogs. I followed their CES coverage as it was happening and they didn’t posted very little about Cisco. In fact, they posted some very embarrassing nude pictures from the AVN convention. Is that what you want your brand associated with? In addition, in the past day that have gone back and back dated many of their CES posts to seem like they were posting live from the event when in fact they were not. They also deleted some of their more embarrassing posts. Their readers called them out on this and they quickly deleted all the comments in an attempt to bury evidence of this behavior. This is unethical behavior and does damage to your brand. I think they owe the marketing team they worked with on this sponsorship an apology.

Johanna Fry Jan 16, 2009

To everyone who has commented on NonSociety,

Thanks for stopping by to read our blog and provide us with your passionate feedback. We’ve received several comments on this topic and I’d like to address them collectively now and update with facts about our relationship with NonSociety and their involvement with Cisco. Cisco did not sponsor NonSociety at CES; rather we employed them to develop media assets, which would live on both our sites. We gave NonSociety the liberty to be creative and spontaneous when producing CES content because NonSociety is able to address people and topics in a lighthearted way that is exclusive of the ‘corporate’ feel that I sometimes find difficult to avoid.

We would also like to disclose that Digital Cribs personalities do not receive any payment for their participation.

With that said, we are still listening, and for those of you who think NonSociety is inappropriate for Cisco, we are very interested to hear your suggestions for personalities who could represent the lighter side of events like CES and would be more appropriate for Cisco.
We have genuinely taken your comments into account, but I want you to know that we’ve decided against posting additional comments, positive or negative, exclusively referencing NonSociety because they are not adding to this blog’s intended conversation concerning digital consumers.  Feel free to view our blogging policy here: http://blogs.cisco.com/news/comments/ciscos_internet_postings_policy/
There are additional videos from NonSociety at CES, which were meant to be an entertaining look at the atmosphere (and not the technology), of CES, which we are reviewing and may post on the Cisco consumer site. We will be happy to take comments on the content of those videos as they relate to digital consumers and CES, but, as noted above, no additional comments about the NonSociety personalities themselves, though you can rest assured that we are cognizant of your opinions regarding NonSociety.

I am emailing all of the commenters to ask for their suggestions directly. If you would like to comment on this post, please be constructive and add a new perspective to the conversation.

Thank you for reading this blog,

Johanna

Jeremy Pepper Jan 18, 2009

Truthfully, that’s a cop out. Social media and blogging - be it Cisco blogs, Twitter, Facebook commenting - is about conversation.

And, you are splitting hairs. According to their site, they were sponsored by Cisco. Sponsorship usually means monetary compensation. If they were _not_ sponsored, then someone needs a correction.

As for a discussion on technology, that is fine. Cisco makes some great products, including Telepresence, that I was proud to support in social media when I worked with Cisco.